College Football

SI TOP 20 Michigan remains a tenuous No. 3, but don't do that again, Bo. The Aggie joke: 4th to 16th and they deserve worse for that 35-17 whipping by LSU. Just when we believed in Tennessee , on the day Miss Tennessee becomes Miss America, the Vols fold in the fourth quarter of a 27-23 loss to Mississippi State . And Ohio State , 40-7 loser to Washington , drops from No. 13 to sayonara. Despite his new contract, put Buckeye Earle Bruce on the endangered species list.
1. OKLAHOMA (1-0)	1*
2. PENN STATE (1-0)	2
3. MICHIGAN (1-0)	3
4. MIAMI (3-0)	5
5. ALABAMA (3-0)	7
6. NEBRASKA (1-0)	8
7. WASHINGTON (1-0)	9
8. GEORGIA (1-0)	10
9. BYU (2-0)	11
10. UCLA (0-1)	12
11. ARKANSAS (1-0)	17
12. BAYLOR (2-0)	15
13. FLORIDA STATE (1-1)	16
14. LSU (1-0)	—
15. ARIZONA (2-0)	18
16. TEXAS A & M (0-1)	4
17. TENNESSEE (1-1)	6
18. IOWA (1-0)	19
19. FLORIDA (1-1)	20**
20. AUBURN (1-0)	—
*Ranking last week **On probation

SURPRISE! ATHLETE TREATED LIKE STUDENT

William Harris, a 6'5", 246-pounder with 4.7 speed, is one of the finest tight ends in the country. Make that was. Harris was kicked out of Texas the other day for an unusual brand of academic failure.

Harris, who made a total of 49 receptions in 1984 and '85, met all academic requirements set by the Southwest Conference and the NCAA , but he did not meet the university's standards. Back home in Houston , Harris says his GPA was "1.6, 1.7." In fact, SI has learned his average was 1.384. Still, Robert King, dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Texas , says he threw Harris "one more life preserver" when he told Harris that, if he could earn a B in two correspondence courses this summer, he could remain in school. Harris made a B and a C in two geography classes, so he got the boot.

However sad this is for Harris and Texas , it is a welcome affirmation of a beleaguered concept: academic integrity in dealing with athletes. "I'm as sorry as I can be," says King. "But the NCAA rule says we have to treat athletes the way we do every other student, and there are no footnotes on that rule. This is the way we treat every other student."

"I dug my own hole," says Harris. "If I hadn't screwed up, I'd still be on the team." Says Longhorn coach Fred Akers , "It makes him a better man to have to admit that." Harris didn't make the grade and Harris is history. Because of that, college football is a little better today than it was yesterday.

MOST CREATIVE COACH OF THE WEEK
Weber State coach Mike Price has no defensive linemen to speak of. Certainly none he would want to talk about publicly. Price's solution to his dilemma? "We play a 0-9-2 defensive alignment. We've got lots of linebackers, but they get mad at me if I call them down linemen. So I am calling them 'down linebackers.' "

UNDERSTATEMENT
UCLA plays San Diego State this Saturday in its second game of the season, but Bruin coach Terry Donahue understandably can't get Oklahoma off his mind. He was humiliated, embarrassed, mortified, shocked and dismayed at his team's 38-3 manhandling by the Sooners on Sept. 6 and says, "We had some real weaknesses exposed in our program." Offense and defense are two specific areas that come quickly to mind.

SO MUCH FOR SPARING THE ROD
Temple coach Bruce Arians decided last year that love would conquer all, and he treated the Owls accordingly. Feeling cherished, they went 4-7. So, to hell with that. Booms Arians, "I'm an s.o.b. this year. I am going back to being a tyrant."

ROLL, WAR EAGLES!

Football and politics make strange but frequent bedfellows in Alabama . For example, in 1978 the late Bear Bryant—so popular in the state that he could have been elected governor if not king—endorsed Bill Baxley, then the state's attorney general, in his bid to become governor. Naturally, Bryant was motivated in part by the fact that Baxley's opponent, Fob James, was—yuk—a former Auburn Ail-America halfback. James, however, won easily, which proves Bryant should have stuck to coaching football and selling potato chips.